Do Dogs Feel Guilt? Hint: Social Media is Lying to You

You come home to a chewed-up shoe, see your dog avoiding eye contact or making themself look small, and wonder… do dogs feel guilt? 🤔

The vast majority of pup parents believe that dogs feel guilt.

But what does scientific research say?

Alexandra Horowitz, a writer, professor, and researcher of dog cognition, conducted a study in 2009 to find out if our pups really can feel guilty!

So let’s break down her study and find out for ourselves if your pup really feels guilty after they have an accident on the carpet.

Let’s do it! ⤵️

This study consisted of 14 dogs of varying ages and breeds. The main criteria were that the dog was at least 6 months old and had lived in their current home for at least 3 months.

So as to get the most realistic results, the study was performed in the respective living rooms of these 14 dogs and their humans.

Here is how the study was carried out.

1. The dog and their human were in the living room a treat was placed in a place accessible by the dog
2. The human told their dog to not take the treat (ie saying leave it, or no, etc.)
3. The human left the room while the dog (and treat) remained in the room

And this is where the real study kicks in…

The study had two main “elements” that varied:

1. Obedience: Essentially, did the dog follow the cue given by the human, aka obedience or did they “break” the cue, aka disobedience
2. Owner response: The pet parents were given two ways to behave when reentering the room, scolding the dog (not hitting or hurting, just scolding with their voice) or greeting the dog in a friendly way

So once the pet parent left the room, sometimes the treat was immediately taken away thus guaranteeing “obedience” to the human’s cue.

In other instances, the dog was prompted by the experimenter (although it was done in a way not to undermine the pet parent’s request to leave the treat) to eat the treat.

Two outcomes occurred for each dog:

1. The dog consumes the treat
2. The dog does not consume the treat

Before returning to the room the pet parent is told to act in one of two ways (see “owner response” above):

1. Scold the dog if told by the experimenter that their pup had consumed the treat
   1. Note: The scolding was verbal, not physical. Think of it as a verbal chastisement like “did you do something bad?” or “what did you do?” or “oh bad dog” etc.
2. Happily greet the dog if told by the experimenter that their pup had NOT consumed the treat

“Obedience” = happy greeting.

“Disobedience” = scolding.

Here’s the twist though!

Some pet parents were told their dog had NOT eaten the treat when the dog actually had.

Others were told the dog DID eat the treat when the dog actually had not.

But the pet parent completely believed the experimenter was being honest. Their behavior returning to the room was equal to what decision the pet parent had been told their dog had done.

So now for the most important part, the results of the study.👇

There was no significant effect on the dog’s obedience to the number of ABs. Meaning whether or not the dog “disobeyed” their human’s “command” had no major role in whether or not the dog acted guilty…

Want to know what did have a significant effect on the number of ABs?

The pet parents’ response!

The study found that the pet parent’s reaction had a MUCH greater impact on the amount of “guilty looks” than the dog’s actual behavior.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is the perfect pup podcast.Helping you build a better
relationship with your pup presented by pop furred.
Hello, pop parents and welcome to today's episode of The
Perfect pop podcast. My name is Devin, we're going to
look at the age. Old question of do dogs, feel
guilt if you want on social media and research on YouTube,

(00:22):
you would be probably led to believe that.
Yes, dogs do feel guilt. Look at all these guilty looks
from dogs but we're going to look at a study that It was done
to determine if dogs actually understand when they've done a
misdeed or when they've caught on quote disobeyed.
So let's get right into it. If you scroll through social
media you'll probably see a compilation video of guilty dog

(00:45):
looks or the world's guiltiest dogs.
And it's all these shots of people coming home and garbage
is everywhere or a toy is torn up or whatever misdeed you want
and the dog is standing there looking Guilty quote-unquote
they are cowering or their ears are pain or they're avoiding eye

(01:05):
contact, you know some of those submissive behaviors and
appeasement behaviors that dogs often exhibit.
So you might think, okay, the dog is feeling guilt but are
they really do they really understand?
They've done something quote, unquote wrong, and without
getting too deep into a philosophical debate about guilt

(01:28):
and what that really means, In the terms of this study
specifically guilt is associatedwith an understanding of a
misdeed. Meaning the dog comprehends and
recognizes that, they did something quote, unquote wrong,
another term that is important to look at.
As we're diving into this study is anthropomorphism, essentially

(01:51):
what that means is taking human traits and human behaviors, and
tying them to animals in this case, dogs.
And those anthropomorphic connections, almost always don't
have scientific backing. An extreme example of
anthropomorphism is Goofy from the Disney character, who is

(02:14):
walking talking, but he's a dog,right?
It's these traits from humans that are kind of given to
animals, whether they are realistic or not, and another
term that is used in this study and I'll maybe use it as the
acronym, as well is Abs and haveabs are just defined as
Associated Behavior. So essentially as they were

(02:36):
conducting this study, they asked the pet parents involved
to kind of Define what they lookat.
As the guilty, look what they see as the guilty look from
their dog and there was a handful of different criteria.
But, you know, some of them wereagain sulking or kind of trying
to make themselves smaller, avoiding eye contact, you know,

(02:56):
maybe trying to leave the room. You can imagine it.
Your own head. Those were what the study called
Associated behaviors or a bee's,basically the guilty look.
So, here's how the study went down and study was done by
Alexandra Horowitz in 2009. And essentially, they took

(03:17):
fourteen dogs variety of breeds variety of Ages.
The requirement was that the dogs were at least six months
old, and have lived in that homefor at least three months.
So that there was, you know, a relationship between human and
dog, the Study was actually conducted in the living rooms of
these 14, individual dogs and their parents just to, you know,
really drive home that it's giving his little variance as

(03:40):
possible because of scenario or environment.
So, it was done in the living room of these pet parents.
So here's what happened. They took the dog, this was all
video recorded as well. They took the dogs and the
humans and put them in the living room and there was a
treat involved and the human told the dog.
To eat the treat. You know, whether they said

(04:01):
leave it or no, no, or whatever it was, right, but they clearly
communicate to the dog, do not eat this, treat the human
leaves, the room, the dog is left there, The Observer and the
researcher would then either take the treat a way to
completely verify that the treatwas not consumed that the dog

(04:21):
quote-unquote obeyed. And then in other instances, the
dogs were given access to the tree.
Sometimes even you know, kind ofguided.
To, to eat it without undermining, the pet parents
Direction. The human then is told without
having come back in, and out, without having seen what
actually happened. They were told either a, the dog

(04:42):
obeyed and did not eat the treator be the dog disobeyed and ate
the treat and they are told to respond one of two ways.
Accordingly, if they are told the dog ate the treat, they are
supposed to scold and that doesn't mean hitting or anything
like that. Just you know, the verbal
scolding of oh, No, did you do this or or oh, bad girl, or

(05:03):
whatever it is, right? They're told to scold if the dog
ate the treat or if they are told, if the dog did not eat the
treat to come in and great the dog happily, you know, hey
butter, give them, you know, give him some pets, just be
calm, demeanor, greeting them, the twist here is that sometimes
the pet parents were told the opposite of what happened so

(05:25):
they were told, for example hey your dog ate the tree and
disobeyed, you you Need to scoldthe dog.
When, in reality, the dog had not eaten the treat.
The treat had even been removed from the room.
So there was no chance of the dog, eating the treat and
disobeying. But parents come back in.
Give the response based on what they were told by the

(05:46):
researcher. And the results were extremely
interesting. Here is what the researchers
found. There was no significant effect
on the quote-unquote guilty looks or Associated behaviors
based on obedience so whether the dog did or did not eat the
treat, so whether they obeyed ordisobeyed, it not have a

(06:09):
significant effect on. Associated behaviors, aka the
guilty look or looking guilty oracting guilty.
What did have a strong and statistically significant effect
on the associated. Behaviors on the guilty, look
was the pet parents response, the scolding and that should be

(06:33):
the piece of information that really hopefully kind of flips a
switch in our head as pup parents to realize that when you
come home. Your dog tore up a shoe.
They act quote-unquote guilty because of our response as pet
parents and you might think well, why are they acting that
way? Why are they cowering or, why

(06:55):
are they avoiding eye contact? Because likely in the past that
were something that happened, that created a learned
Connection in the dog's brain tounderstand.
When my pet parent is scolding me, whatever that looks like,
right, raising your voice, Getting angry at the tone of
your voice. The words that you're saying,

(07:16):
even just your own feelings, we've talked to on this podcast
about how dogs can read our chemical messages, even the
feelings of anger and being frustrated and bothered that
your dog destroyed something, those things are, what your dog
is responding to. They are not responding to, oh,
I did something that I know deepinside was wrong, they are

(07:39):
responding to your behaviors. Yes, and your cues, and your
verbal physical emotional responses.
Let that sink in for a second. Our dogs respond in a guilty
look, because of our actions, because of a response that

(08:00):
they've learned to our behaviors, our words, our tone,
our emotional chemical messages that we are giving out.
So, you might be thinking, well,That's just one study you know?
And of course every study has its limitations but I'll link to

(08:20):
the specific study. You should read it, you should
check it out. You should look at the
statistics because it's pretty evident that the only real
correlation between the quote unquote, guilty look.
Was that human scolding the dog.And what was even more
interesting is that there is that there were higher rates of

(08:41):
quote-unquote guilty looks When the dog had obeyed but was still
scolded. So take with that.
What you want. My goal is not to tell someone
they're wrong or right? If they think dogs feel guilt.
I just want to lay out the evidence.
And the information that has been presented by someone, who

(09:03):
knows a whole lot more than I doabout dog behavior and about
conducting experiments and they found a statistically
significant effect. On the guilty look via the human
scolding. So, I hope you enjoy this
episode. The takeaway that I think we
should have as parents is less about the debate on whether or

(09:25):
not dogs feel guilt. But really, what can be gleaned
from this research? Is that our Behavior as humans,
our responses, and how we interact with and communicate
with our dogs plays a large effect on their mental psyche
and how they're Are going to behave and how they're going to

(09:45):
react and you know, those appeasement behaviors, the
appeasement body language like the cowering.
The avoiding eye contact even leaving the room.
It's just our dogs expressing a learned response to our own
actions and decisions that they have had happened previously in
their life. So I hope you enjoyed this

(10:06):
episode. I'd love to hear your opinion on
it. Tell me why you think I'm wrong.
Tell me why you think Alexander Horowitz is Tell me your
experience, tell me, you know what you've seen in this regard.
I love healthy, debate and healthy commentary.
So please, please give it. If you haven't already, please
leave a review on Apple podcast.If you're on YouTube, subscribe,

(10:28):
leave us a comment and other than that, we will catch you on
the next episode.